15 2017 Architecture Awards Build stablished in 1987, PCA operates at different levels, from attentively crafted interiors to large scale projects. The design embraces residential, commercial, hospitality, landscaping and urban planning. Full architectural service is provided from con- cept to supervision and final completion in a close, active collaboration with client and specialist consultants. Paolo outlines how he works to ensure that clients receive the outcome they desire no matter what the project. “The narrative of my architecture is informed by the vocabulary of climate, culture and context and speaks through a clean, modern language. The aim is to ‘tailor’ to a specific place innovative formal and technological buildings’ expressions, able to offer significant experiences, to make the people feeling well, excited for the place they inhabit, whether they are houses or public spaces.” To truly highlight his architectural style, Paolo uses a recent project and explains how he worked to ensure that the client received the service and solution he needed. “A small project, recently completed in Malaysia, synthesises my idea of architecture, highlighting several aspects I particularly concern about in my work. It’s a small pavilion, organised on a modest plot of land: architec- tural sign and landscape, closely blended together, interact with empathic consonance, offering a harmonic ensemble where water, greenery and light play a primary role of regeneration. Essential, modern idiom and integration between inside and outside maximise the sensorial experience closely con- nected with the beauty of nature, exalting the calming and soothing power of the regenerative, healing corner. “Compact and porous, the pavilion, nestled on a strip of current water, opens up at the center with large opposite openings that, besides encour- aging cross ventilation, minimise the transition between exterior and interior, arousing the feeling to sit immersed in the tropical context. Material and Best Landscape Architecture Firm – Malaysia & Residential Landscaping Project of the Year 2017: Pavilion Ponderosa PCA-PaoloCucchiArchitects is a multi-disciplinary international architectural practice. We caught up with Founding Principal and Design Director Paolo to learn more about the firm and the approach it takes to its projects. E AR170005 Contact: Paolo Cucchi Contact Email:
[email protected] Address: No. 51, Jln Strait View 4, 80200 Johor Bahru, Malaysia Phone: 0060 7222 0900 Web Address: www.paolocucchiarchitects.com visual contaminations highlight this continuity, reinforcing the pleasure to live directly in the greenery. Glass voids break the external envelope, letting glimpses of the garden invade the internal space, almost everywhere. Rhythm of running water, from the sprightly jets along the granite wall fence, acts in unison, performing a miracle of freshness, provoking and renewing emotions. Attentive combination of light, natural and artificial, rhythmically enhances the belt of fluidity that embraces and nurtures as vital lymph the composition. “Sustainability has been one of the major concerns for ensuring, apart ener- gy and costs saving, the best indoor and outdoor comfort. Here in Malaysia, for objective difficult climatic conditions as humidity, hot weather all year around, sadly today people has abandoned a kind of life carried out mostly outdoor in the exuberant green environment, preferring to live in cool closed ambiences. The satisfaction has been to restore, appealing to traditional and more recent technological devices, ‘a modus vivendi’ more appropriate with the context, hearing from the client, who didn’t want to renounce to the installation of the air conditioning, that I was right and he did not need it. It is gratifying, when you are able to prove that sustainability is not a renounce, a sacrifice but at the end a privilege, helping to experience and enjoy the pleasure to live more connected with the nature.” In his concluding comments Paolo discusses how his firm’s latest project will allow it to build upon its current success. “Currently, we are involved in three large projects in South East Asia region: a high end touristic/residential development incorporating housing, villas, resort, sport facilities and two mixed use developments including retail, housing, hotel as well as a bus terminal, all of which will provide us with great opportunities to grow our portfolio.”